When the fabricated food folks and apologists for the corporate farm realized
that they couldn't block America's growing interest in diet and nutrition, a
movement that would ultimately put an end to America's biggest and most
monopolistic industries, they infiltrated the movement and put a few sinister
twists on information going out to the public. Item number one in the
disinformation campaign was the assertion that naturally saturated fats from
animal sources are the root cause of the current heart disease and cancer
plague. Butter bore the brunt of the attack, and was accused of terrible crimes.
The Diet Dictocrats told us that it was better to switch to polyunsaturated
margarine and most Americans did. Butter all but disappeared from our tables,
shunned as a miscreant.

This would come as a surprise to many people around the globe who have valued
butter for its life-sustaining properties for millennia. When Dr. Weston Price
studied native diets in the 1930's he found that butter was a staple in the
diets of many supremely healthy peoples.1 Isolated Swiss villagers
placed a bowl of butter on their church altars, set a wick in it, and let it
burn throughout the year as a sign of divinity in the butter. Arab groups also
put a high value on butter, especially deep yellow-orange butter from livestock
feeding on green grass in the spring and fall. American folk wisdom recognized
that children raised on butter were robust and sturdy; but that children given
skim milk during their growing years were pale and thin, with "pinched" faces.2

Does butter cause disease? On the contrary, butter protects us against many
diseases.

Butter & Heart Disease

Heart disease was rare in America at the turn of the century. Between 1920
and 1960, the incidence of heart disease rose precipitously to become America's
number one killer. During the same period butter consumption plummeted from
eighteen pounds per person per year to four. It doesn't take a Ph.D. in
statistics to conclude that butter is not a cause. Actually butter contains many
nutrients that protect us from heart disease. First among these is vitamin A
which is needed for the health of the thyroid and adrenal glands, both of which
play a role in maintaining the proper functioning of the heart and
cardiovascular system. Abnormalities of the heart and larger blood vessels occur
in babies born to vitamin A deficient mothers. Butter is America's best and most
easily absorbed source of vitamin A.

Butter contains lecithin, a substance that assists in the proper assimilation
and metabolism of cholesterol and other fat constituents.

Butter also contains a number of anti-oxidants that protect against the kind
of free radical damage that weakens the arteries. Vitamin A and vitamin E found
in butter both play a strong anti-oxidant role. Butter is a very rich source of
selenium, a vital anti-oxidant--containing more per gram than herring or wheat
germ.

Butter is also a good dietary source cholesterol. What?? Cholesterol an
anti-oxidant?? Yes indeed, cholesterol is a potent anti-oxidant that is flooded
into the blood when we take in too many harmful free-radicals--usually from
damaged and rancid fats in margarine and highly processed vegetable oils.3
A Medical Research Council survey showed that men eating butter ran half the
risk of developing heart disease as those using margarine.4

Butter & Cancer

In the 1940's research indicated that increased fat intake caused cancer.5
The abandonment of butter accelerated; margarine--formerly a poor man's food--
was accepted by the well-to-do. But there was a small problem with the way this
research was presented to the public. The popular press neglected to stress that
fact that the "saturated" fats used in these experiments were not naturally
saturated fats but partially hydrogenated or hardened fats--the kind found
mostly in margarine but not in butter. Researchers stated--they may have even
believed it--that there was no difference between naturally saturated fats in
butter and artificially hardened fats in margarine and shortening. So butter was
tarred with the black brush of the fabricated fats, and in such a way that the
villains got passed off as heroes.

Actually many of the saturated fats in butter have strong anti-cancer
properties. Butter is rich in short and medium chain fatty acid chains that have
strong anti-tumor effects.6 Butter also contains conjugated linoleic
acid which gives excellent protection against cancer.7

Vitamin A and the anti-oxidants in butter--vitamin E, selenium and
cholesterol--protect against cancer as well as heart disease.

Butter & the Immune System

Vitamin A found in butter is essential to a healthy immune system; short and
medium chain fatty acids also have immune system strengthening properties. But
hydrogenated fats and an excess of long chain fatty acids found in
polyunsaturated oils and many butter substitutes both have a deleterious effect
on the immune system.8

Butter & Arthritis

The Wulzen or "anti-stiffness" factor is a nutrient unique to butter. Dutch
researcher Wulzen found that it protects against calcification of the
joints--degenerative arthritis--as well as hardening of the arteries, cataracts
and calcification of the pineal gland.9 Unfortunately this vital
substance is destroyed during pasteurization. Calves fed pasteurized milk or
skim milk develop joint stiffness and do not thrive. Their symptoms are reversed
when raw butterfat is added to the diet.

Butter & Osteoporosis

Vitamins A and D in butter are essential to the proper absorption of calcium
and hence necessary for strong bones and teeth. The plague of osteoporosis in
milk-drinking western nations may be due to the fact that most people choose
skim milk over whole, thinking it is good for them. Butter also has
anti-cariogenic effects, that is, it protects against tooth decay.10

Butter & the Thyroid Gland

Butter is a good source of iodine, in highly absorbable form. Butter
consumption prevents goiter in mountainous areas where seafood is not available.
In addition, vitamin A in butter is essential for proper functioning of the
thyroid gland.11

Butter & Gastrointestinal Health

Butterfat contains glycospingolipids, a special category of fatty acids that
protect against gastro-intestinal infection, especially in the very young and
the elderly. For this reason, children who drink skim milk have diarrhea at
rates three to five times greater than children who drink whole milk.12
Cholesterol in butterfat promotes health of the intestinal wall and protects
against cancer of the colon.13 Short and medium chain fatty acids
protect against pathogens and have strong anti-fungal effects.14
Butter thus has an important role to play in the treatment of candida
overgrowth.

Butter & Weight Gain

The notion that butter causes weight gain is a sad misconception. The short
and medium chain fatty acids in butter are not stored in the adipose tissue, but
are used for quick energy. Fat tissue in humans is composed mainly of longer
chain fatty acids.15 These come from olive oil and polyunsaturated
oils as well as from refined carbohydrates. Because butter is rich in nutrients,
it confers a feeling of satisfaction when consumed. Can it be that consumption
of margarine and other butter substitutes results in cravings and bingeing
because these highly fabricated products don't give the body what it needs?.

Butter for Growth & Development

Many factors in butter ensure optimal growth of children. Chief among them is
vitamin A. Individuals who have been deprived of sufficient vitamin A during
gestation tend to have narrow faces and skeletal structure, small palates and
crowded teeth.16 Extreme vitamin A deprivation results in blindness,
skeletal problems and other birth defects.17 Individuals receiving
optimal vitamin A from the time of conception have broad handsome faces, strong
straight teeth, and excellent bone structure. Vitamin A also plays an important
role in the development of the sex characteristics. Calves fed butter
substitutes sicken and die before reaching maturity.18

The X
factor, discovered by Dr. Weston Price (and now believed to be vitamin K2),
is also essential for optimum growth. It is only present in butterfat from cows
on green pasture.19 Cholesterol found in butterfat plays an important
role in the development of the brain and nervous system.20 Mother's
milk is high in cholesterol and contains over 50 percent of its calories as
butterfat. Low fat diets have been linked to failure to thrive in children21--yet
low-fat diets are often recommended for youngsters! Children need the many
factors in butter and other animal fats for optimal development.

Beyond Margarine

It's no longer a secret that the margarine Americans have been spreading on
their toast, and the hydrogenated fats they eat in commercial baked goods like
cookies and crackers, is the chief culprit in our current plague of cancer and
heart disease.22 But mainline nutrition writers continue to denigrate
butter--recommending new fangled tub spreads instead.23 These may not
contain hydrogenated fats but they are composed of highly processed rancid
vegetable oils, soy protein isolate and a host of additives. A glitzy cookbook
called Butter Busters promotes butter buds, made from maltodextrin, a
carbohydrate derived from corn, along with dozens of other highly processed
so-called low-fat commercial products.

Who benefits from the propaganda blitz against butter? The list is a long one
and includes orthodox medicine, hospitals, the drug companies and food
processors. But the chief beneficiary is the large corporate farm and the
cartels that buy their products--chiefly cotton, corn and soy--America's three
main crops, which are usually grown as monocultures on large farms, requiring
extensive use of artificial fertilizers and pesticides. All three--soy, cotton
and corn--can be used to make both margarine and the new designer spreads. In
order to make these products acceptable to the up-scale consumer, food
processors and agribusiness see to it that they are promoted as health foods. We
are fools to believe them.

Butter & the Family Farm

A nation that consumes butterfat, on the other hand, is a nation that
sustains the family farm. If Americans were willing to pay a good price for high
quality butter and cream, from cows raised on natural pasturage--every owner of
a small- or medium-sized farm could derive financial benefits from owning a few
Jersey or Guernsey cows. In order to give them green pasture, he would naturally
need to rotate crops, leaving different sections of his farm for his cows to
graze and at the same time giving the earth the benefit of a period of
fallow--not to mention the benefit of high quality manure. Fields tended in this
way produce very high quality vegetables and grains in subsequent seasons,
without the addition of nitrogen fertilizers and with minimal use of pesticides.
Chickens running around his barnyard, and feeding off bugs that gather under
cowpaddies, would produce eggs with superb nutritional qualities--absolutely
bursting with vitamin A and highly beneficial fatty acids.

If you wish to reestablish America as a nation of prosperous farmers in the
best Jeffersonian tradition, buy organic butter, cream, whole milk, whole
yoghurt, and barn-free eggs. These bring good and fair profits to the yeoman
producer without concentrating power in the hands of conglomerates.

Ethnic groups that do not use butter obtain the same nutrients from things
like insects, organ meats, fish eggs and the fat of marine animals, food items
most of us find repulsive. For Americans--who do not eat bugs or blubber--butter
is not just better, it is essential.

Representative of American folk traditions about butterfat is this
passage from "Neighbor Rosicky", by American author Willa Cather: [The
Rosickys] had been at one accord not to hurry through life, not to be always
skimping and saving. They saw their neighbours buy more land and feed more
stock than they did, without discontent. Once when the creamery agent came
to the Rosickys to persuade them to sell him their cream, he told them how
much the Fasslers, their nearest neighbours, had made on their cream last
year. "Yes," said Mary, "and look at them Fassler children! Pale, pinched
little things, they look like skimmed milk. I'd rather put some colour into
my children's faces than put money into the bank."

Sally
Fallon is the author of
Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct
Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats (with Mary G. Enig, PhD), a
well-researched, thought-provoking guide to traditional foods with a startling
message: Animal fats and cholesterol are not villains but vital factors in the
diet, necessary for normal growth, proper function of the brain and nervous
system, protection from disease and optimum energy levels. She joined forces
with Enig again to write Eat Fat, Lose Fat, and has authored numerous
articles on the subject of diet and health. The President of the Weston A. Price
Foundation and founder of A Campaign for Real
Milk, Sally is also a journalist, chef, nutrition researcher, homemaker, and
community activist. Her four healthy children were raised on whole foods
including butter, cream, eggs and meat.

Mary
G. Enig, PhD is an expert of international renown in the field of lipid
biochemistry. She has headed a number of studies on the content and effects of
trans fatty acids in America and Israel, and has successfully
challenged government assertions that dietary animal fat causes cancer and heart
disease. Recent scientific and media attention on the possible adverse health
effects of trans fatty acids has brought increased attention to her
work. She is a licensed nutritionist, certified by the Certification Board for
Nutrition Specialists, a qualified expert witness, nutrition consultant to
individuals, industry and state and federal governments, contributing editor to
a number of scientific publications, Fellow of the American College of Nutrition
and President of the Maryland Nutritionists Association. She is the author of
over 60 technical papers and presentations, as well as a popular lecturer. Dr.
Enig is currently working on the exploratory development of an adjunct therapy
for AIDS using complete medium chain saturated fatty acids from whole foods. She
is Vice-President of the Weston A Price Foundation and Scientific Editor of
Wise Traditions as well as the author of Know Your Fats: The Complete
Primer for Understanding the Nutrition of Fats, Oils, and Cholesterol,
Bethesda Press, May 2000. She is the mother of three healthy children brought up
on whole foods including butter, cream, eggs and meat.